About
DOKADS.
A community and learning hub for children, grandchildren, and other descendants of Korean adoptees — built by descendants, for descendants.
Section 01. Three connected things
An introduction
Help people understand the term and recognise whether the community may include them. Most visitors arrive having never seen the word.
A resource
Clear, respectful information about identity, family, Korea, adoption, culture, and what travels between generations.
A connection point
Events, local groups, stories, and ways to take part — so the questions get asked in company rather than alone.
Section 02. Community-led, and we mean it
DoKAD programming should be shaped and led by DoKADs.
DOKADS recognizes that the Korean adoptee community made this generation possible and that adoptee voices remain central to conversations about Korean adoption. At the same time, descendants have experiences and questions of their own. DoKAD programs should be developed with DoKAD leadership rather than created solely on their behalf.
Korean adoptees, parents, organizations, researchers, and allies may provide support, resources, mentorship, funding, or partnership — but descendants should have meaningful leadership in decisions about DoKAD programming.
with, not on behalf of.
Where it applies — this principle governs the About page, community values, volunteer and committee roles, event planning, and any future regional-group guidelines.
Section 03. What we do not assume
The fastest way to make someone feel like they do not belong is to describe an experience they do not recognise. So we try not to assume:
- that everyone feels affected by adoption
- that every DoKAD wants a connection to Korea
- that everyone has access to adoption records
- that everyone has a good relationship with their adoptee parent
- that everyone identifies as Korean
- that every DoKAD is mixed race
- that anyone wants to discuss trauma
- that DoKAD is a diagnosis, a requirement, or a fixed category
There is no single DoKAD experience. If something on this site reads as though there is, tell us and we will fix the wording.
Section 04. Adoptees, parents, and partners
Korean adoptees built the organisations, the writing, the research, and the language that this community stands on. Nothing here replaces adoptee-led work, and adoptee voices remain central to any conversation about Korean adoption.
Descendants also have questions of their own — about a parent’s history, about race, about a family tree that stops — and those questions deserve a place that is built around them.
DOKADS is powered by AK Connection, the Minnesota-based community organisation for adult Korean adoptees — support that looks exactly like the principle above: adoptees backing the next generation’s space without directing it. Other organisations, researchers, and allies are welcome to support, fund, mentor, and partner, and being part of DOKADS does not connect you to any other organisation.
Where this started
DOKADS began with a survey of descendants of Korean adoptees. The findings shape the site you are reading: plain language before jargon, social gatherings before programming, coffee shops before bars, and a first local community in Minnesota with everything else built for a wider audience.
Want a say in what this becomes?
That is not a rhetorical question — it is the whole model.